日本美術

出典: フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』

日本美術には実に多様な種類がある。陶磁器、彫刻、絵画など、その種類は非常に多い。また長い歴史をもっており、日本に人間が住み始めた紀元前10世紀頃から現在まで継承されている。

歴史的に見ると、日本は外国文化の影響を受けやすかった。というのも日本は外国との交渉を最小限に抑えてきたからであった。日本はその度に外国文化を吸収してきた。それが日本人の美的嗜好を生み出した。初期の日本美術は仏教と密接に関連付けられたもので、7、8世紀頃に確立された。9世紀になり、日本が次第に中国と距離を置き、自国の表現方法を生み出し始めると、こんどは非宗教的な美術に重点が置かれた。15世紀後期まで、この双方とも繁栄した。応仁の乱（1467年-1477年）後の100年にわたり、日本では政治的、社会的、そして経済的に分裂した戦国時代に突入した。徳川がリーダーシップをとった江戸時代に入ると、宗教は人々の生活にはほとんど影響を及ぼすことはなくなったため、この時代の美術は非宗教的なものがほとんどであった。

絵画は日本では良質な芸術表現として、プロもアマも同じように活動を行っている。現代に至るまでは日本人はペンよりも筆をよく用いていた。そのために日本人は古くから筆になじんでおり、日本人は絵画の質に非常に敏感であり、絵画の美しさを際立たせた。江戸時代の文化においては、浮世絵と呼ばれる木版画が主要な芸術作品となり、浮世絵の技術は毎日のニュースから教科書にいたるまで幅広く利用された。だがこの頃になると日本人は彫刻が芸術表現としての役割を担うまでにはならないことを次第に理解していった。というのは、日本の彫刻の大部分は仏教と密接につながっており、伝統的な仏教が次第に力を持たなくなった日本社会においては彫刻は重要な位置を占めることはなく、衰退していった。

日本の陶芸は世界で最も優れており、日本文化の中で最も歴史がある。日本建築においては日本人の嗜好がよく表現されている。天然素材にこだわり、建物の外部と内部の調和がとれている建築物が多い。

今日では、現代の日本の美術、ファッション、建築物では他国と肩を並べる。それは日本の芸術が真に現代的であり国際的でありさまざまな文化に溶け込むことができる素地があると考えられるからである。

目次 1 日本美術史 1.1 縄文美術 1.2 弥生美術 1.3 古墳美術 1.4 飛鳥美術、奈良美術 1.5 平安美術 1.6 鎌倉美術 1.7 室町美術 1.8 安土桃山美術 1.9 江戸時代美術 1.10 明治美術 1.11 戦後時代 1.12 現代日本美術 2 パフォーミング・アーツ 3 美学的概念 4 美術家 4.1 流派 4.2 Government art sponsorship 4.3 Private sponsorship and foundations 5 注 6 References 7 外部リンク

[編集] 日本美術史

[編集] 縄文美術

初めて日本にやってきた縄文人は狩りを生活の中心に据えた遊牧民であったが、のちに規格化された農業を行い、数千とはいかないまでも数百の小都市をつくった。「縄文」という言葉は彼らの土器に刻まれた縄の模様にちなんでつけられたものだ。彼らは竪穴住居に住み、食べ物を貯蔵するための陶器や土偶や水晶の宝石をを作っていた。

[編集] 弥生美術

immigrantsの次の波は弥生人であった。彼らは、紀元前350年頃、日本に到着し、水田稲作の知識、銅武器と銅鐸の製作、ろくろで造られ、乾燥炉で焼かれた陶磁器をもたらした。

[編集] 古墳美術

The third stage in Japanese prehistory, the 古墳, or Tumulus, period (c AD 250–552), represents a modification of 弥生 culture, attributable either to internal development or external force. In this period, diverse groups of people formed political alliances and coalesced into a nation. Typical artifacts are bronze mirrors, symbols of political alliances, and clay sculptures called 埴輪 which were erected outside tombs.

[編集] 飛鳥美術、奈良美術

During the 飛鳥時代 and 奈良時代s, so named because the seat of Japanese government was located in the Asuka Valley from 552 to 710 and in the city of 奈良 until 784, the first significant invasion by Asian continental culture took place in Japan.

The transmission of Buddhism provided the initial impetus for contacts between China, Korea and 日本. The Japanese recognized the facets of 中国文化 that could profitably be incorporated into their own: a system for converting ideas and sounds into writing; historiography; complex theories of government, such as an effective 官僚制; and, most important for the arts, new technologies, new building techniques, more advanced methods of casting in bronze, and new techniques and media for painting.

Throughout the 7th and 8th centuries, however, the major focus in contacts between Japan and the Asian continent was the development of Buddhism. Not all scholars agree on the significant dates and the appropriate names to apply to various time periods between 552, the official date of the introduction of Buddhism into Japan, and 784, when the Japanese capital was transferred from Nara. The most common designations are the Suiko period, 552–645; the Hakuho period, 645–710, and the Tenpyō period, 710–784.

The earliest Japanese sculptures of the Buddha are dated to6世紀と7世紀. They ultimately derive from the 1st-3rd century CE Greco-Buddhist art of ガンダーラ, characterized by flowing dress patterns and realistic rendering, on which Chinese and Korean artistic traits were superimposed ^[1]. They illustrate the terminal point of the Silk Road transmission of Art during the first few centuries of our era. Other examples can be found in the development of the iconography of the Japanese 風神 Wind God ^[2], the Nio guardians ^[3], and the near-Classical floral patterns in temple decorations ^[4].

The earliest Buddhist structures still extant in Japan, and the oldest wooden buildings in the 極東 are found at the 法隆寺 to the southwest of Nara. First built in the early 7th century as the private temple of Crown 聖徳太子, it consists of 41 independent buildings. The most important ones, the main worship hall, or 金堂 (Golden Hall), and 五重塔 (Five-story Pagoda), stand in the center of an open area surrounded by a roofed cloister. The 金堂, in the style of Chinese worship halls, is a two-story structure of post-and-beam construction, capped by an 入母屋, or hipped-gabled roof of ceramic tiles.

Inside the 金堂, on a large rectangular platform, are some of the most important sculptures of the period. The central image is a Shaka Trinity (623), the historical Buddha flanked by two bodhisattvas, a sculpture cast in bronze by the sculptor Tori Busshi (flourished early 7th century) in homage to the recently deceased Prince Shotoku. At the four corners of the platform are the 四天王, carved in wood around 650年. Also housed at 法隆寺 is the 玉虫厨子, a wooden replica of a コンドウ, which is set on a high wooden base that is decorated with figural paintings executed in a medium of mineral pigments mixed with lacquer.

Temple building in the 8th century was focused around the 東大寺 in Nara. Constructed as the headquarters for a network of temples in each of the provinces, the Tōdaiji is the most ambitious religious complex erected in the early centuries of Buddhist worship in Japan. Appropriately, the 16.2-m (53-ft) Buddha (completed 752) enshrined in the main Buddha hall, or 大仏殿, is a Rushana Buddha, the figure that represents the essence of Buddhahood, just as the 東大寺 represented the center for Imperially sponsored Buddhism and its dissemination throughout Japan. Only a few fragments of the original statue survive, and the present hall and central Buddha are reconstructions from the 江戸時代.

Clustered around the Daibutsuden on a gently sloping hillside are a number of secondary halls: the 法華堂 , with its principal image, the Fukukenjaku 観音 (the most popular bodhisattva), crafted of dry lacquer (cloth dipped in lacquer and shaped over a wooden armature); the Kaidanin (Ordination Hall) with its magnificent clay statues of the 四天王; and the storehouse, called the 正倉院. This last structure is of great importance as an art-historical cache, because in it are stored the utensils that were used in the temple's dedication ceremony in 752, the eye-opening ritual for the Rushana image, as well as government documents and many secular objects owned by the Imperial family.

[編集] 平安美術

794年、都は平安京に遷され (現京都)、同地に where it remained until 1868年まで。 The term 平安時代 refers to the years between 794 and 1185, when the 鎌倉将軍 was established at the end of the 源平の乱. The period is further divided into the early Heian and the late Heian, or Fujiwara era, the pivotal date being 894, the year imperial embassies to China were officially discontinued.

前期平安美術: In reaction to the growing wealth and power of organized Buddhism in Nara, the priest 空海 (best known by his posthumous title 弘法大師, 774-835) journeyed to China to study Shingon, a form of Vajrayana Buddhism, which he introduced into Japan in 806. At the core of Shingon worship are mandalas, diagrams of the spiritual universe, which then began to influence temple design. Japanese Buddhist architecture also adopted the stupa, originally an Indian architectural form, in its Chinese-style pagoda.

The temples erected for this new sect were built in the mountains, far away from the Court and the laity in the capital. The irregular topography of these sites forced Japanese architects to rethink the problems of temple construction, and in so doing to choose more indigenous elements of design. Cypress-bark roofs replaced those of ceramic tile, wood planks were used instead of earthen floors, and a separate worship area for the laity was added in front of the main sanctuary.

The temple that best reflects the spirit of early Heian Shingon temples is the 室生寺 (early 9th century), set deep in a stand of cypress trees on a mountain southeast of Nara. The wooden image (also early 9th c.) of Shakyamuni, the "historic" Buddha, enshrined in a secondary building at the Muro-ji, is typical of the early Heian sculpture, with its ponderous body, covered by thick drapery folds carved in the hompa-shiki (rolling-wave) style, and its austere, withdrawn facial expression.

藤原美術: In the Fujiwara period, 浄土, which offered easy salvation through belief in 阿弥陀 (the Buddha of the Western Paradise), became popular. This period is named after the Fujiwara family, then the most powerful in the country, who ruled as regents for the Emperor, becoming, in effect, civil dictators. Concurrently, the Kyoto nobility developed a society devoted to elegant aesthetic pursuits. So secure and beautiful was their world that they could not conceive of Paradise as being much different. They created a new form of Buddha hall, the Amida hall, which blends the secular with the religious, and houses one or more Buddha images within a structure resembling the mansions of the nobility.

The 鳳凰堂 (completed 1053) of the 平等院, a temple in 宇治 to the southeast of Kyoto, is the exemplar of Fujiwara Amida halls. It consists of a main rectangular structure flanked by two L-shaped wing corridors and a tail corridor, set at the edge of a large artificial pond. Inside, a single golden image of Amida (c. 1053) is installed on a high platform. The Amida sculpture was executed by Jocho, who used a new canon of proportions and a new technique (yosegi), in which multiple pieces of wood are carved out like shells and joined from the inside. Applied to the walls of the hall are small relief carvings of celestials, the host believed to have accompanied Amida when he descended from the Western Paradise to gather the souls of believers at the moment of death and transport them in lotus blossoms to Paradise. Raigo paintings on the wooden doors of the Ho-o-do, depicting the Descent of the Amida Buddha, are an early example of Yamato-e, Japanese-style painting, and contain representations of the scenery around Kyoto.

絵巻: 平安時代最後の世紀に、絵巻が came to the fore. Dating from about 1130, 挿絵入りの'源氏物語' represents one of the high points of Japanese painting. Written about the year 1000 by 紫式部, a lady-in-waiting to the Empress アキコ, the novel deals with the life and loves of Prince Genji and the world of the Heian court after his death. The 12th-century artists of the 絵巻 version devised a system of pictorial conventions that convey visually the emotional content of each scene. この世紀の後半に、, a different, more lively style of continuous narrative illustration became popular. The 伴大納言絵詞 (late 12th century), a scroll that deals with an intrigue at court, emphasizes figures in active motion depicted in rapidly executed brush strokes and thin but vibrant colors.

絵巻 also serve as some of the earliest and greatest examples of the 男絵 and 女絵 styles of painting. There are many fine differences in the two styles, appealing to the aesthetic preferences of the genders. But perhaps most easily noticeable are the differences in subject matter. 女絵, epitomized by the Tale of Genji handscroll, typically deals with court life, particularly the court ladies, and with romantic themes. 男絵, on the other hand, often recorded historical events, particularly battles. The Siege of the Sanjō Palace (1160), depicted in the painting "Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace" is a famous example of this style.

[編集] 鎌倉美術

In 1180 a war broke out between the two most powerful warrior clans, the 平 and the 源; five years later the Minamoto emerged victorious and established a de facto seat of government at the seaside village of Kamakura, where it remained until 1333. With the shift of power from the nobility to the warrior class, the arts had to satisfy a new audience: men devoted to the skills of warfare, priests committed to making Buddhism available to illiterate commoners, and conservatives, the nobility and some members of the priesthood who regretted the declining power of the court. Thus, realism, a popularizing trend, and a classical revival characterize the art of the 鎌倉時代.

建築: The Kei school of sculptors, particularly 運慶, created a new, more realistic style of sculpture. The two 仁王 guardian images (1203) in the Great South Gate of the 東大寺 in Nara illustrate Unkei's dynamic suprarealistic style. The images, about 8 m (about 26 ft) tall, were carved of multiple blocks in a period of about three months, a feat indicative of a developed studio system of artisans working under the direction of a master sculptor. Unkei's polychromed wood sculptures (1208, 興福寺, 奈良) of two Indian sages, Muchaku and Seshin, the legendary founders of the Hosso sect, are among the most accomplished realistic works of the period; as rendered by Unkei, they are remarkably individualized and believable images.

書と絵画: The Kegon Engi Emaki, the illustrated history of the founding of the 華厳 sect, is an excellent example of the popularizing trend in Kamakura painting. The Kegon sect, one of the most important in the Nara period, fell on hard times during the ascendancy of the 浄土 sects. After the Genpei War (1180-1185), Priest Myōe of Kōzan-ji temple sought to revive the sect and also to provide a refuge for women widowed by the war. The wives of samurai had been discouraged from learning more than a syllabary system for transcribing sounds and ideas (see 仮名), and most were incapable of reading texts that employed Chinese ideographs (漢字). Thus, the 華厳縁起絵巻 combines passages of text, written with a maximum of easily readable syllables, and illustrations that have the dialogue between characters written next to the speakers, a technique comparable to contemporary comic strips. The plot of the e-maki, the lives of the two Korean priests who founded the Kegon sect, is swiftly paced and filled with fantastic feats such as a journey to the palace of the Ocean King, and a poignant love story.

A work in a more conservative vein is the illustrated version of 紫式部日記. 絵巻 versions of her novel continued to be produced, but the nobility, attuned to the new interest in realism yet nostalgic for past days of wealth and power, revived and illustrated the diary in order to recapture the splendor of the author's times. One of the most beautiful passages illustrates the episode in which Murasaki Shikibu is playfully held prisoner in her room by two young courtiers, while, just outside, moonlight gleams on the mossy banks of a rivulet in the imperial garden.

[編集] 室町美術

室町時代に、日本文化に深遠な変化が起こった。足利氏が、 The Ashikaga clan took control of the shogunate and moved its headquarters back to Kyoto, to the Muromachi district of the city. With the return of government to the capital, the popularizing trends of the Kamakura period came to an end, and cultural expression took on a more aristocratic, elitist character. 禅 Buddhism, the Ch'an sect　traditionally thought to have been founded in China in the 6th century AD, was introduced for a second time into Japan and took root.

絵画: Because of secular ventures and trading missions to China organized by Zen temples, many Chinese paintings and objects of art were imported into Japan and profoundly influenced Japanese artists working for Zen temples and the shogunate. Not only did these imports change the subject matter of painting, but they also modified the use of color; the bright colors of Yamato-e yielded to the 墨絵 of painting in the Chinese manner.

Typical of early 室町絵画 is the depiction by the priest-painter Kao (15世紀前半活動) of the legendary monk Kensu (Hsien-tzu in Chinese) at the moment he achieved enlightenment. This type of painting was executed with quick brush strokes and a minimum of detail. 'Catching a Catfish with a Gourd' (15世紀前半、 Taizo-in, Myoshin-ji, 京都), by the priest-painter Josetsu (1400年頃活動), marks a turning point in 室町絵画. Executed originally for a low-standing screen, it has been remounted as a hanging scroll with inscriptions by contemporary figures above, one of which refers to the painting as being in the "new style." In the foreground a man is depicted on the bank of a stream holding a small gourd and looking at a large slithery catfish. Mist fills the middle ground, and the background mountains appear to be far in the distance. It is generally assumed that the "new style" of the painting, executed about 1413, refers to a more Chinese sense of deep space within the picture plane.

The foremost artists of 室町時代 are the priest-painters Shubun and 雪舟. Shubun, a monk at the 京都 temple of Shokoku-ji, created in the painting 'Reading in a Bamboo Grove' (1446年) a realistic landscape with deep recession into space. 雪舟, unlike most artists of the period, was able to journey to 中国 and study 中国絵画 at its source. 'The Long Handscroll' is one of 雪舟's most accomplished works, depicting a continuing landscape through 四季.

[編集] 安土桃山美術

詳細はArt of the Momoyama periodを参照

In the Momoyama period (1573-1603),織田信長、豊臣秀吉および徳川家康のような a succession of military leaders attempted to bring peace and political stability to Japan after an era of almost 100 years of warfare. Oda, a minor chieftain, acquired power sufficient to take de facto control of the government in 1568 and, five years later, to oust the last Ashikaga shogun. Hideyoshi took command after Oda's death, but his plans to establish hereditary rule were foiled by Ieyasu, who established the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603.

絵画: The most important school of painting in the Momoyama period was that of the Kano school, and the greatest innovation of the period was the formula, developed by Kano Eitoku, for the creation of monumental landscapes on the sliding doors enclosing a room. The decoration of the main room facing the garden of the Juko-in, a subtemple of Daitoku-ji (a Zen temple in Kyoto), is perhaps the best extant example of Eitoku's work. A massive ume tree and twin pines are depicted on pairs of sliding screens in diagonally opposite corners, their trunks repeating the verticals of the corner posts and their branches extending to left and right, unifying the adjoining panels. Eitoku's screen, 'Chinese Lions', also in Kyoto, reveals the bold, brightly colored style of painting preferred by the samurai.

Hasegawa Tohaku, a contemporary of Eitoku, developed a somewhat different and more decorative style for large-scale screen paintings. In his 'Maple Screen', now in the temple of Chishaku-in, Kyoto, he placed the trunk of the tree in the center and extended the limbs nearly to the edge of the composition, creating a flatter, less architectonic work than Eitoku, but a visually gorgeous painting. His sixfold screen, 'Pine Wood', is a masterly rendering in 墨絵 of a grove of trees enveloped in mist.

[編集] 江戸時代美術

The 徳川将軍 of the 江戸時代 gained undisputed control of the government in 1603 with a commitment to bring peace and economic and political stability to the country; in large measure it was successful. The shogunate survived until 1867, when it was forced to capitulate because of its failure to deal with pressure from Western nations to open the country to foreign trade. One of the dominant themes in the Edo period was the repressive policies of the shogunate and the attempts of artists to escape these strictures. The foremost of these was the closing of the country to foreigners and the accoutrements of their cultures, and the imposition of strict codes of behavior affecting every aspect of life, the clothes one wore, the person one married, and the activities one could or should not pursue.

In the early years of the Edo period, however, the full impact of Tokugawa policies had not yet been felt, and some of Japan's finest expressions in architecture and painting were produced: Katsura Palace in Kyoto and the paintings of 俵屋宗達, pioneer of the Rimpa school.

建築: 桂離宮, built in imitation of Prince Genji's palace, contains a cluster of shoin buildings that combine elements of classic Japanese architecture with innovative restatements. The whole complex is surrounded by a beautiful garden with paths for walking.

絵画: Sōtatsu evolved a superb decorative style by re-creating themes from classical literature, using brilliantly colored figures and motifs from the natural world set against gold-leaf backgrounds. One of his finest works is the pair of screens The Waves at Matsushima in the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C. A century later, Korin reworked Sōtatsu's style and created visually gorgeous works uniquely his own. Perhaps his finest are the screen paintings of red and white ume blossoms.

Woodblock prints と文人画: The school of art best known in the West is that of the 浮世絵 paintings and woodblock prints of the demimonde, the world of the 歌舞伎 theater and the brothel district. Ukiyo-e prints began to be produced in the late 17th century, but in 1764 Harunobu produced the first polychrome print. Print designers of the next generation, including Torii Kiyonaga and 歌麿, created elegant and sometimes insightful depictions of courtesans.

In the 19th century the dominant figure was 広重, a creator of romantic and somewhat sentimental landscape prints. The odd angles and shapes through which Hiroshige often viewed landscape, and the work of Kiyonaga and Utamaro, with its emphasis on flat planes and strong linear outlines, had a profound impact on such Western artists as Edgar Degas and Vincent van Gogh.

Another school of painting contemporary with ukiyo-e was 文人画, a style based on paintings executed by Chinese scholar-painters. Just as ukiyo-e artists chose to depict figures from life outside the strictures of the Tokugawa shogunate, Bunjin artists turned to Chinese culture. The exemplars of this style are 池大雅, 与謝蕪村, Tanomura Chikuden, and Yamamoto Baiitsu.

[編集] 明治美術

明治天皇が即位した1867年以降、日本は、またしても新たな、外国の文化形式の侵略を受けた。西洋文化価値の導入は、ほとんどすべての他の文化側面と同様に、日本美術のなかに伝統的価値と、衝突する新しい考えを複製し同化しようとする試みとへの分裂を引き起こした。This split remained evident in the late twentieth century, although much synthesis had by then already occurred, and created an international cultural atmosphere and stimulated contemporary Japanese arts toward ever more innovative forms.

20世紀初期までに、ヨーロッパの美術諸様式は、十分に導入され、それらの結婚は、こんにちなお存在する東京駅と国会議事堂のような有名な建物を生じた。

漫画は、イギリスとフランスの政治漫画の影響を強く受けて、明治時代に初めて描かれた。

絵画: The first response of the Japanese to Western art forms was open-hearted acceptance, and in 1876 the Technological Art School was opened, employing Italian instructors to teach Western methods. The second response was a pendulum swing in the opposite direction spearheaded by Okakura Kakuzo and the American Ernest Fenollosa, who encouraged Japanese artists to retain traditional themes and techniques while creating works more in keeping with contemporary taste. Out of these two poles of artistic theory developed Yōga (Western-style painting) and 日本画, categories that remain valid to the present day.

[編集] 戦後時代

第二次世界大戦後、多くの美術家が began working in art forms derived from the international scene, moving away from local artistic developments into the mainstream of world art. But traditional Japanese conceptions endured, particularly in the use of modular space in architecture, certain spacing intervals in music and dance, a propensity for certain color combinations and characteristic literary forms. The wide variety of art forms available to the Japanese reflect the vigorous state of the arts, widely supported by the Japanese people and promoted by the government.

American art and architecture greatly influenced Japan. Though fear of earthquakes severely restricted the building of a skyscraper, technological advances let Japanese build larger and higher buildings with more artistic outlooks.

As Japan has always made little distinction between 'fine art' and 'decorative art', as the West is first beginning to do, it is important to note Japan's significant and unique contributions to the fields of art in entertainment, commercial uses, and graphic design. Cartoons imported from America led to アニメ that at first were derived exclusively from manga stories. Today, anime abounds, and many artists and studios have risen to great fame as artists; 宮崎駿 and the artists and animators of スタジオ・ジブリ are generally regarded to be among the best the anime world has to offer. Japan also flourishes in the fields of graphic design, commercial art (e.g. billboards, magazine advertisements), and in video game graphics and concept art.

[編集] 現代日本美術

Japanese modern art takes as many forms and expresses as many different ideas as modern art in general, worldwide. It ranges from advertisements, anime, video games, and architecture as already mentioned, to sculpture, painting, and drawing in all their myriad forms.

Many artists do continue to paint in the traditional manner, with black ink and color on paper or silk. Some of these depict traditional subject matter in the traditional styles, while others explore new and different motifs and styles, while using the traditional media. Still others eschew native media and styles, embracing Western oil paints or any number of other forms.

彫刻ではおなじことが当てはまる;伝統的なモードに some artists stick to the traditional modes, some doing it with a modern flair, and some choose Western or brand new modes, styles, and media. Yo Akiyama is just one of countless modern Japanese sculptors. He works primarily in clay pottery and ceramics, creating works that are very simple and straightforward, looking like they were created out of the earth itself. Another sculptor, using iron and other modern materials, built a large modern art sculpture in the Israeli port city of Haifa, called 花火 (Fireworks).

村上隆 is arguably one of the most well-known Japanese modern artists in the Western world. Murakami and the other artists in his studio create pieces in a style, inspired by anime, which he has dubbed "superflat". His pieces take a multitude of forms, from painting to sculpture, some truly massive in size. But most if not all show very clearly this anime influence, utilizing bright colors and simplified details.

[編集] パフォーミング・アーツ

A remarkable number of the traditional forms of Japanese music, dance, and theater have survived in the contemporary world, enjoying some popularity through reidentification with Japanese cultural values. Traditional music and dance, which trace their origins to ancient religious use - Buddhist, 神道, and folk - have been preserved in the dramatic performances of 能, 歌舞伎, and 文楽 theater. Ancient court music and dance forms deriving from continental sources were preserved through Imperial household musicians and temple and shrine troupes. Some of the oldest musical instruments in the world have been in continuous use in Japan from the Jomon period, as shown by finds of stone and clay flutes and zithers having between two and four strings, to which Yayoi period metal bells and gongs were added to create early musical ensembles. By the early historical period (sixth to seventh centuries AD), there were a variety of large and small drums, gongs, chimes, flutes, and stringed instruments, such as the imported mandolin-like 琵琶 and the flat six-stringed zither, which evolved into the thirteen-stringed コト. These instruments formed the orchestras for the seventh-century continentally derived ceremonial court music (雅楽), which, together with the accompanying 舞楽 (a type of court dance), are the most ancient of such forms still performed at the Imperial court, ancient temples, and shrines. Buddhism introduced the rhythmic chants, still used, that underpin Shigin, and that were joined with native ideas to underlay the development of vocal music, such as in Noh.

[編集] 美学的概念

詳細はJapanese aestheticsを参照

Japanese art is characterized by unique polarities. In the ceramics of the prehistoric periods, for example, exuberance was followed by disciplined and refined artistry. Another instance is provided by two 16th-century structures that are poles apart: the 桂離宮 is an exercise in simplicity, with an emphasis on natural materials, rough and untrimmed, and an affinity for beauty achieved by accident; 日光東照宮 is a rigidly symmetrical structure replete with brightly colored relief carvings covering every visible surface. Japanese art, valued not only for its simplicity but also for its colorful exuberance, has considerably influenced 19th-century Western painting and 20th century Western architecture.

Japan's aesthetic conceptions, deriving from diverse cultural traditions, have been formative in the production of unique art forms. Over the centuries, a wide range of artistic motifs developed and were refined, becoming imbued with symbolic significance. Like a 真珠, they acquired many layers of meaning and a high luster. Japanese aesthetics provide a key to understanding artistic works perceivably different from those coming from Western traditions.

Within the East Asian artistic tradition, China has been the acknowledged teacher and Japan the devoted student. Nevertheless, Japanese arts developed their own style, which can be clearly differentiated from the Chinese. The monumental, symmetrically balanced, rational approach of Chinese art forms became miniaturized, irregular, and subtly suggestive in Japanese hands. Miniature rock gardens, diminutive plants (盆栽), and 生け花 (flower arrangements), in which the selected few represented a garden, were the favorite pursuits of refined aristocrats for a millennium, and they have remained a part of contemporary cultural life.

The diagonal, reflecting a natural flow, rather than the fixed triangle, became the favored structural device, whether in painting, architectural or garden design, dance steps, or musical notations. Odd numbers replace even numbers in the regularity of a Chinese master pattern, and a pull to one side allows a motif to turn the corner of a three-dimensional object, thus giving continuity and motion that is lacking in a static frontal design. Japanese painters used the devices of the cutoff, close-up, and fade-out by the twelfth century in 大和絵, or Japanese-style, scroll painting, perhaps one reason why modern filmmaking has been such a natural and successful art form in Japan. Suggestion is used rather than direct statement; oblique poetic hints and allusive and inconclusive melodies and thoughts have proved frustrating to the Westerner trying to penetrate the meanings of literature, music, painting, and even everyday language.

The Japanese began defining such aesthetic ideas in a number of evocative phrases by at least the tenth or eleventh century. The courtly refinements of the aristocratic Heian period evolved into the elegant simplicity seen as the essence of good taste in the understated art that is called shibui. Two terms originating from 禅 Buddhist meditative practices describe degrees of tranquility: one, the repose found in humble melancholy (わび), the other, the serenity accompanying the enjoyment of subdued beauty (さび). Zen thought also contributed a penchant for combining the unexpected or startling, used to jolt one's consciousness toward the goal of enlightenment. In art, this approach was expressed in combinations of such unlikely materials as lead inlaid in lacquer and in clashing poetic imagery. Unexpectedly humorous and sometimes grotesque images and motifs also stem from the Zen 公案 (conundrum). Although the arts have been mainly secular since the Tokugawa period, traditional aesthetics and training methods, stemming generally from religious sources, continue to underlie artistic productions.

[編集] 美術家

Traditionally, the artist was a vehicle for expression and was personally reticent, in keeping with the role of an artisan or entertainer of low social status. The calligrapher, a member of the Confucian literati class, or noble 侍 class in Japan, had a higher status, while artists of great genius were often recognized in the 鎌倉時代 by receiving a name from a feudal lord and thus rising socially. The performing arts, however, were generally held in less esteem, and the purported immorality of actresses of the early 歌舞伎 theater caused the 徳川将軍 government to bar women from the stage; female roles in Kabuki and Noh thereafter were played by men.

After World War II, artists typically gathered in arts associations, some of which were long-established professional societies while others reflected the latest arts movement. The Japan Artists League, for example, was responsible for the largest number of major exhibitions, including the prestigious annual Nitten (Japan Art Exhibition). The P.E.N. Club of Japan (P.E.N. stands for prose, essay, and narrative), a branch of an international writers' organization, was the largest of some thirty major authors' associations. Actors, dancers, musicians, and other performing artists boasted their own societies, including the Kabuki Society, organized in 1987 to maintain this art's traditional high standards, which were thought to be endangered by modern innovation. By the 1980s, however, avant-garde painters and sculptors had eschewed all groups and were "unattached" artists.

[編集] 流派

There are a number of specialized universities for the arts in Japan, led by the national universities. The most important is the 東京芸術大学, one of the most difficult of all national universities to enter. Another seminal center is Tama Arts University in Tokyo, which produced many of Japan's late twentieth- century innovative young artists. Traditional training in the arts, derived from Chinese traditional methods, remains; experts teach from their homes or head schools working within a master-pupil relationship. A pupil does not experiment with a personal style until achieving the highest level of training, or graduating from an arts school, or becoming head of a school. Many young artists have criticized this system as stifling creativity and individuality. A new generation of the avant-garde has broken with this tradition, often receiving its training in the West. In the traditional arts, however, the master-pupil system preserves the secrets and skills of the past. Some master-pupil lineages can be traced to the Kamakura period, from which they continue to use a great master's style or theme. Japanese artists consider technical virtuosity as the sine qua non of their professions, a fact recognized by the rest of the world as one of the hallmarks of Japanese art.

[編集] Government art sponsorship

詳細は文化庁を参照

The national government has actively supported the arts through the 文化庁, set up in 1968 as a special body of the 文部科学省. The agency's budget for FY 1989 rose to ￥37.8 billion after five years of budget cuts, but still represented much less than 1 percent of the general budget. The agency's Cultural Affairs Division disseminated information about the arts within Japan and internationally, and the Cultural Properties Protection Division protected the nation's cultural heritage. The Cultural Affairs Division is concerned with such areas as art and culture promotion, arts copyrights, and improvements in the national language. It also supports both national and local arts and cultural festivals, and it funds traveling cultural events in music, theater, dance, art exhibitions, and filmmaking. Special prizes are offered to encourage young artists and established practitioners, and some grants are given each year to enable them to train abroad. The agency funds national museums of modern art in Kyoto and Tokyo and the Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, which exhibit both Japanese and international shows. The agency also supports the Japan Academy of Arts, which honors eminent persons of arts and letters, appointing them to membership and offering ￥3.5 million in prize money. Awards are made in the presence of the 天皇, who personally bestows the highest accolade, the Cultural Medal.

[編集] Private sponsorship and foundations

Arts patronage and promotion by the government are broadened to include a new cooperative effort with corporate Japan to provide funding beyond the tight budget of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Many other public and private institutions participate, especially in the burgeoning field of awarding arts prizes. A growing number of large corporations join major newspapers in sponsoring exhibitions and performances and in giving yearly prizes. The most important of the many literary awards given are the venerable 直木賞 and the 芥川賞, the latter being the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize in the United States.

1989年 an effort to promote cross-cultural exchange led to the establishment of a Japanese "Nobel Prize" for the arts, the Premium Imperiale, by the Japan Art Association. This prize of US$100,000 was funded largely by the mass media conglomerate フジ産経 and was awarded on a worldwide selection basis.

A number of foundations promoting the arts arose in the 1980s, including the Cultural Properties Foundation set up to preserve historic sites overseas, especially along the Silk Road in Inner Asia and at Dunhuang in China. Another international arrangement was made in 1988 with the United States Smithsonian Institution for cooperative exchange of high-technology studies of Asian artifacts. The government plays a major role by funding the 日本財団, which provides both institutional and individual grants, effects scholarly exchanges, awards annual prizes, supported publications and exhibitions, and sends traditional Japanese arts groups to perform abroad. The Arts Festival held for two months each fall for all the performing arts is sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Major cities also provides substantial support for the arts; a growing number of cities in the 1980s had built large centers for the performing arts and, stimulated by government funding, were offering prizes such as the ラフカディオ・ハーン賞 initiated by the city of 松江. A number of new municipal museums were also providing about one-third more facilities in the 1980s than were previously available. In the late 1980s, 東京 added more than twenty new cultural halls, notably, the large Cultural Village built by Tokyo Corporation and the reconstruction of シェークスピア's Globe Theatre. All these efforts reflect a rising popular enthusiasm for the arts. Japanese art buyers swept the Western art markets in the late 1980s, paying record highs for impressionist paintings and US$51.7 million alone for one 青の時代 ピカソ. har har har mooh!

[編集] 注

1. ^ "Needless to say, the influence of Greek art on Japanese Buddhist art, via the Buddhist art of ガンダーラ and インド, was already partly known in, for example, the comparison of the wavy drapery of the Buddha images, in what was, originally, a typical Greek style" (タナベ　カツミ, "Alexander the Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan", p19)
2. ^ "The 風神 images do not belong to a separate tradition apart from that of their Western counter-parts but share the same origins. (...) One of the characteristics of these Far Eastern wind god images is the wind bag held by this god with both hands, the origin of which can be traced back to the shawl or mantle worn by Boreas/ Oado." (タナベ　カツミ, "Alexander the Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan", p21)
3. ^ "The origin of the image of Vajrapani should be explained. This deity is the protector and guide of the Buddha Sakyamuni. His image was modelled after that of Hercules. (...) The Gandharan Vajrapani was transformed in Central Asia and China and afterwards transmitted to Japan, where it exerted stylistic influences on the wrestler-like statues of the Guardina Deities (Nio)." (Katsumi Tanabe, "Alexander the Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan", p23)
4. ^ The transmission of the floral scroll pattern from West to East is presented in the regular exhibition of Ancient Japanese Art, at the 東京国立博物館.

[編集] References

• この記事は、 originally WebMuseum Paris - Famous Artworks exhibitionに基づく [1].
• Template:Loc - Japan
• "The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity" by John Boardman (Princeton University Press, 1994) ISBN 0-691-03680-2
• "Alexander the Great: East-West Cultural contacts from Greece to Japan" (NHK　と　東京国立博物館, 2003)
• "De l'Indus à l'Oxus, Archéologie de l'Asie Centrale", Osmund Bopearachchi, Christine Sachs, ISBN 2-9516679-2-2
• "The Crossroads of Asia, Transformation in image and symbols", 1992, ISBN 0-9518399-1-8

[編集] 外部リンク

• Japanese Art Introduction. Sanaz Mohadesiによる英文記事
• 東京国立博物館: Photographs from Japan Collection. Comprehensive collection from all periods.
• http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/Japanese%20art
• 世界美術史における浮世絵